Bula friends and family!
Diana and Inga here with news from the past week in Tongovere Village. This past week has been full of long and hot but rewarding work days, crazy smiling children following us around, a plethora of delicious papayas, coconuts, bananas, and mangos from trees around the village, and so many welcoming families. We are both rooming together in a big, loving family’s home for this homestay. All of us are spread out around the village and have been experiencing a drastically different lifestyle that we all have definitely struggled with at times, but have also welcomed as an exciting challenge. To just give you an idea of some of the struggles we’ve experienced along with all the other amazing adventures we’ve had in the past days, picture Diana and Inga walking up the hill from our house to dinner, as usual we’re surrounded by a pack of small children screaming our names, and family’s yelling “Bula!” from their doorsteps. Without warning Inga yells “Sweet D (Diana) I’m gonna single dragon (puke)”. As she proceeds to violently throw up into a near by bush surrounded by the now silent villagers stares, Diana stands there holding her hair cracking up at the awkward situation at hand. It’s safe to say that almost all of us have experienced similar, but maybe less public struggles during our time here in Fiji– we’ve had to adjust to the different types of food here. While this may have been uncomfortable for Inga in the moment, we laughed about it almost immediately after and we will continue to laugh at and embrace such dilemmas as travelers.
So far our time here has been filled with mostly working, playing volleyball and rugby with the villagers, hiking up a sweaty version of Mt. Doom, going on a tour of the Fiji Water Plant, and our ultimate favorite: spending a day on the beach with our whole group and our families. On Thursday everyone had work and school off for Diwali, an Indian festival, so we all got to enjoy a much needed day of rest by the refreshing ocean. Our family’s caught fresh fish and cooked rice and cassava over a fire for our lunch. We also all enjoyed fresh coconut water that we drank out of makeshift straws from a plant as well as the soft meat inside. Small children surrounded us all day with their contagious smiles and entertaining games, all and all it was an amazing day spent with so many loving people.
Today we are spending the day in a near by town called Rakiraki, catching up with our lives back home and stocking up on hand sanitizer and peanut butter for our final days in the wonderful village we’ve been lucky enough to call home for the past week or so. Next Wednesday we’re heading to the remote island of Kia for our student directed travel to spend another couple days in a village soaking up the sun and taking in the beautiful sights and people that make up these islands.
We would like to give a shout out to our friends and families back home for their constant love and support they’ve given us throughout this journey, although we don’t get many chances to catch up with you all, know that your support means the world to us!
Much love,
-Diana Evans & Inga Bodtker